Bollywood’s ‘Dear Friend Hitler’ Is Back

Remember the Hitler movie that actor Anupam Kher backed out of last year, to the relief of Jewish groups in India and Israel?

Well, it’s back. More precisely, it opens Friday.

Courtesy Amrapali Media Vision Pvt. Ltd.

“Dear Friend Hitler“—in India it has become “Gandhi to Hitler”—takes its name from two letters Mahatma Gandhi wrote Hitler in an attempt to persuade the Nazi leader to drop his plans for world domination. They addressed Hitler as “Dear friend.”

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The first letter was written on July 23, 1939, in the lead-up to the invasion of Poland and the start of World War II, while the second was written around Christmas 1940, after the worst genocide in history was already underway. The letters apparently never reached him but film director Rakesh Ranjan Kumar believes Hitler knew of them. The first letter is now displayed at Mani Bhavan, Mumbai’s Gandhi museum.

The movie, Mr. Kumar’s first film, screened in Berlin in February and at the Cannes film festival in May. Mr. Kumar said the reaction was mostly positive, though the previously mentioned Hollywood Reporter piece thought the film was unintentionally hilarious while another review concluded by praising the acting abilities of the Himalayas, which stand in for the Swiss Alps.

“90% accepted it well. Some people who were biased from before did not accept it,” Mr. Kumar told India Real Time, adding: “Ultimately Gandhi is the hero and Hitler is the loser. They saw we didn’t glorify him.”

There are some amusing things in the previews online, such as Nazis speaking Hindi (although admittedly, this shouldn’t be any more strange than movies where Nazis speak English) and Ms. Dhupia’s red wig. As Raghubir Yadav, who plays Hitler, strides around the bunker shouting, a short-tempered (and short) Indian bureaucrat shouting at his peons comes to mind.

Mr. Kumar defended his casting choices.

“If Ben Kingsley can play Gandhi, then why can’t Raghubir Yadav play Hitler,” said Mr. Kumar, referring to the Oscar-winning 1982 biopic that continues to appear on Indian television. “It’s an experiment. In India no one has done it.”

Mr. Kumar said he chose Hitler as a subject for his first movie because as a boy his father used to recount to him stories from history, including about Gandhi, Hitler, the Fascist Italian leader Benito Mussolini and the American president who presided over the end of slavery, Abraham Lincoln.

It’s not clear if the artistic wishes of an Israeli diplomat, expressed at the time that the film was first publicized last year, will be fulfilled.

“We would hope that the film will depict this dictator in his true light as a bestial blot on mankind,” David Goldfarb, a spokesman for the Israeli embassy in New Delhi, told India Real Time in June last year.

But Mr. Kumar says that it will be clear to viewers the film stands for peace and against Nazism.

He said he felt compelled to make the movie because of the apparent admiration he says he has heard Indians express for the strongman style of leadership. A story by the British daily The Telegraph in 2009 said that “Mein Kampf” (My Struggle), Hitler’s autobiography, was a popular item in Indian bookstores, reporting that business students were particularly interested in the title.

Mr. Kumar said he felt that at least some Indians see Hitler as an able administrator who hugely increased Germany’s power and reach in just a few years—rather than focusing on the horrific death and destruction he wrought. Germany continues to battle with its history and guilt over that history. Mr. Kumar said he intended the film as a warning to those who think India could do with a leader like that.

“Would you want such a leader in India?” says Mr. Kumar. “If you choose a leader like that, ultimately India will end up the same way.”

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India Real Time offers analysis and insights into the broad range of developments in business, markets, the economy, politics, culture, sports, and entertainment that take place every single day in the world’s largest democracy. Regular posts from Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires reporters around the country provide a unique take on the main stories in the news, shed light on what else mattered and why, and give global readers a snapshot of what Indians have been talking about all week. You can contact the editors at indiarealtime(at)wsj(dot)com.